1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a transflective liquid crystal display panel, and more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a transflective liquid crystal display panel that requires fewer photomask processes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
According to different designs of light source, liquid crystal display panels may be divided into three kinds, which are transmissive liquid crystal display panels, reflective liquid crystal display panels, and transflective liquid crystal display panels. Combining the advantages of the transmissive liquid crystal display panel and the reflective liquid crystal display panel, the display quality of the transflective liquid crystal display panel may be ensured in both outdoor environments with strong ambient light and indoor environments. Conventional structure of the transflective liquid crystal display panel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,245,335. For providing a reflection effect, at least a photomask process is required to make a reflective metal layer. Additionally, an extra photomask process is needed to make reflective bumps for enhancing the reflection effect. Accordingly, more manufacturing processes are required to make the transflective liquid crystal display panel compared to the manufacturing processes of the transmissive liquid crystal display panel.
More specifically, at least eight photomask processes are generally required in a conventional manufacturing process of the transflective liquid crystal display panel. For example, to make the transflective liquid crystal display panel, a first photomask process is used to make gate electrodes, a second photomask process is used to make a semiconductor layer, a third photomask process is used to make source electrodes and drain electrodes, a fourth photomask process is used to make pixel electrodes, a fifth photomask process is used to make resin opens, a sixth photomask process is used to make resin bumps, a seventh photomask process is used to make contact holes, and an eighth photomask process is used to make reflective electrodes. Each of the photomask processes comprises many steps, such as depositing, cleaning, photoresist coating, photo exposure, developing, etching, photoresist stripping, and inspecting. Therefore, there are problems with the conventional transflective liquid crystal display panel, such as complicated processes, high manufacturing costs, and low yields.